AP Photo GAINESVILLE -- On the opening day of Florida's spring practice about three weeks ago, Chad Jackson boldly declared that the Gators had the best receiving corps in the country.

New coach Urban Meyer scoffed at the notion.

It doesn't seem so far fetched now.

Jackson, Dallas Baker and Andre Caldwell caught a combined 21 passes for 370 yards and five touchdowns in Florida's annual spring game Saturday. Along with quarterbacks Chris Leak and Josh Portis, the receivers highlighted Meyer's innovative offense and gave a record crowd exactly what it wanted from the much-anticipated game.

"The receivers are going to have a lot of fun in this offense," said Baker, who caught six passes for 134 yards and three touchdowns.

Spring football

Miami

Kyle Wright throws for 159 yards and two touchdowns in an impressive performance for the Hurricanes.

Georgia

D.J. Shockley and Leonard Pope star for the Bulldogs.

Baker caught the first two touchdown passes of the game and helped the Orange team beat the Blue squad 34-28. The 6-foot-3 senior made a one-handed grab on a 31-yard touchdown pass from Leak, then turned a simple screen pass into a 48-yard scoring play.

Jackson, also playing for the Orange team, finished with seven catches for 87 yards and a touchdown. His 16-yard touchdown grab gave the Orange team a 20-0 lead in the first quarter.

Caldwell, meanwhile, was the Blue team's best player. He finished with eight receptions for 149 yards, including a 37-yard score in which he carried defensive back Jermaine McCollum into the end zone from 5 yards out.

"The receivers had their best day of the spring today," Meyer said.

Big spring games are nothing new for Baker, though. He caught three passes for 176 yards in last year's game and had three receptions for 67 yards in the 2003 contest, but has yet to meet expectations during the regular season.

"I'm sick of just having good spring games," Baker said. "I want to transfer it over."

There's plenty Meyer would like to carry over, too.

Leak was 14-of-20 passing for 221 yards and had four touchdowns passes. Portis, a 17-year-old freshman who enrolled in January, completed 20 of 30 passes for 253 yards and four touchdowns. Portis, a cousin of Washington Redskins running back Clinton Portis, also ran eight times for 39 yards.

"I think I proved something today," Portis said. "It took a little while to get in the groove, but once I got in the groove I was tough to stop."

Portis, Gavin Dickey and Cornelius Ingram entered spring practice battling for the No. 2 quarterback position behind Leak. Portis got a big advantage over the other two because they spent part of spring practice playing other sports: Dickey is an outfielder on the baseball team and Ingram is a reserve guard on the basketball team.

"I think he was clueless about a month ago," Meyer said. "But the thing you see is that he's as explosive with his legs as he is with his arm. He's going to be a good quarterback here."

The offense had a leg up in the game because "we handcuffed the defense," Meyer said.

The defense wasn't allowed to blitz, a rule designed to give the fans a game filled with offense. And for Meyer, feeding the frenzy that surrounds his new program was as important as getting his team ready for the Sept. 3 opener against Wyoming.

An estimated 58,500 fans -- nearly 20,000 more than the previous record set in 2002 under coach Ron Zook -- attended the game.

"We have a very serious obligation to a bunch of important people, and that's called Gator Nation," Meyer said. "You saw they were out in full force today."

Meyer, who previously turned around programs with Bowling Green and Utah, has spent countless hours this spring visiting with fraternities, sororities and other various student body groups in an effort to rebuild support that slipped significantly while the program lost 15 games in the three seasons since Steve Spurrier left.

He also reached out to former players, inviting them to watch practice, hang out in the locker room and be a part of the team.

Former Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel, Chris Doering, Larry Kennedy, Shane Matthews, Kerwin Bell, John Reaves and Jack Youngblood were among several players on hand for the game.

"We encourage it, we welcome it and it's great to see those guys back here," Meyer said.